


Any-fin Goes

by heckalotta



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Hunk is petty and Valid for it, Keith is a fisherman who can't fish to save his life, Lance (Voltron) is a Dork, M/M, MerMay, Mermaid Hunk, Polyamorous relationship, Rated teen for swearing, and he is also valid, but he tries his best, mermaid au, mermaid lance, there may only be 4 more days left of May BUT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 14:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14771694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heckalotta/pseuds/heckalotta
Summary: Keith’s never been a very good fisherman. At all. So, when he waddles down to the shore in his fishing gear, he sure as hell doesn’t expect anything to bite right away, and he sure as hell didn’t expect the fish to be waiting for him at shore.Or, my take on a mermaid AU.





	Any-fin Goes

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you once again to my lovely beta-reader Tamara!!! <3

When one goes fishing, they don’t expect to drop their line directly into the water and get a bite. A good fisherman knows that patience is of the essence when fishing, and that paddling around aimlessly for a few hours may not be very fruitful, if at all.

Keith is impatient, and hates doing anything aimless. Needless to say, he’s never been a very good fisherman. At all. So, when he waddles down to the shore in his fishing gear (that he only picked up a few disastrous attempts in), he sure as hell doesn’t expect anything to bite right away, and he sure as hell didn’t expect the fish to be  _ waiting _ for him at shore.

But, looking at the large…  _ fish-man _ sitting on the end of his shoddy dock throws any of the fishing expectations Keith had today out the goddamned window.

The fish dude is large, has a dark skin tone and an impressive golden-yellow tail. His “ears” are two large fins on either side of his head, jutting up from his hair that curls at the nape of his neck.

“Uh, hello?” Keith calls.

The mermaid turns around. “Oh! Hello!” He calls over, cheery. The mermaid looks around, like he’s been caught somewhere he shouldn’t be. “Is this your dock?”

“Um. Yes,” Keith answers, rooted to the ground.

“Oh, cool. I can leave if you want. It’s kinda a crappy dock, by the way.”

Of course. He stumbles across a fucking mythical being, and it calls him out on his shitty craftsmanship skills. Of  _ course _ .

“I know,” he says, defeated. The mermaid returns to staring out over the water, his back to Keith again. The motion has sun glinting off some of the scales smattered there. After a momentー during which Keith still stands motionless, doing nothing, like a weirdoー the mermaid turns back around and beckons him over.

“Didn’t you come down here to do something?” He asks.

“Fishing,” Keith answers as he makes his way over to stand next to the creature. This close, he can see the fanning fins the mermaid has, and the way they dance in the water as his tail hangs in it.

“Huh. Neat.” The mermaid’s eyebrows raised in recognition, and he slaps his fist onto his open palm. “Oh! Are you that dude who always comes out onto the lake in that sad little rowboat?”

Keith facepalms. “ _ Yes _ ,” he hisses out under his breath. “Just call me out on my entire pathetic life while you’re at it, huh?”

“Hey, hey,” the mermaid says, raising his hands in surrender. “I didn’t mean to offend you. Sorry for hurting your feelings. Join me?” He asks, patting the dock to the left of him, like he owns the place.

_ What the hell,  _ Keith thinks, _ why not, _ as he plops down.

“Nice!” The mermaid smiles, knocking the breath out of Keith.  _ This _ close, he can see that the man across from him is  _ very _ attractive. Keith takes a moment to admire his large bicep muscles, because  _ wow _ . The mermaid’s hair bobs in the wind as he moves his face closer to Keith’s. His internal dialogue at the moment is  _??? _ and he vocalizes it as “Uh?”

“Your eyes are beautiful,” the mermaid comments, smiling softly before moving away. “I’ve never seen humans with eyes like that.”

It takes Keith a moment to regain his higher brain functions. “W-what do you mean?”

“They’re, like, purple, almost! Very mysterious,” he adds with a knowing smile.

“Thanks?”

He laughs. “No problem.” They sit in silence for a little longer, before Keith  _ has _ to ask:

“You’re not worried? About me seeing you?”

“You’re not the first human I’ve met, you know. I’ve run into a few people out on this little lake.”

“Oh.” Silence falls again. Keith fidgets with his hands, and the mermaid watches his face, waiting.

“Geez, you’re not very talkative are you?” He says.

“Sorry,” Keith ducks his head sheepishly. “I don’t talk to a lot of people. Or mermaids.”

“Or mermaids,” he laughs again, and Keith feels achieved for some reason. “Here, I’ll start. I’m Hunk,” he says, offering his hand to Keith.

“I’m Keith.” Keith takes his hand and shakes it. Hunk beams, and it’s like Keith won the fucking lottery. He smiles back a little, too. “So, you already know I came here to do some fishing. Why are you here?”

Hunk crosses his arms and huffs, looking away crossly. “You could call it giving someone the silent treatment.”

Oooh, mermaid drama. Keith’s no more interested in it than regular drama, but clearly Hunk is waiting from him to pursue the topic.

“Uh, and why’s that?”

“My boyfriend is being especially dumb today.”

“Oh,” Keith answers, a little off-put by  _ boyfriend _ , which is stupid. How would anything even work in a relationship with a mermaid?

_ A very, very handsome mermaid, _ his brain reminds him.

_ Not the time, _ Keith shoots back.

“So, I’m over here,” Hunk plows on, “away from him, because the one thing he loves more than anything is attention.”

“Petty,” Keith comments, and Hunk looks immensely pleased with himself.

“I know,” he says smugly, showing off sharp teeth with a smile. Silence falls again, but apparently Hunk isn’t done complaining, so he prompts Keith with: “Wanna hear what he did?”

“Sure,” Keith agrees.

“ _ So _ ,” Hunk begins, throwing his hands in the air, “Lance— my boyfriend— has had his eyes on this lady, Nyma—”

“He’s cheating?” Keith asks.

“What? No. We’re open to multiple partners,” Hunk elaborates, and Keith nods along with an “ _ oh _ .” A weird spark of hope alights in him, which he shoves away.

“Anyways, Lance’s been making goo-goo eyes at her for the  _ longest _ time. I told him, ‘hey man, I wouldn’t mess with that’. That fish is a  _ nefarious _ scammer, but no, once he’s set on something, there’s no stopping him.” Hunk looks put-off, and Keith flushes a little because he knows he’s, truthfully, the same way: he also has a very one-track mind. “But, who am I to tell him what he can and can’t do? If it would make him happy, well, I don’t want to get in the way of that. He completely believed she was a good person, and I decided to trust is judgement,” Hunk continues on, shrugging. “So I let him try and court her, and lo and behold, I find him tied to a rock and  _ completely _ robbed. She didn’t miss a  _ thing _ . I helped him free, of course, but I’m still upset.” He pouts at the end. Keith realizes Hunk’s expecting him to cheer him up.

“Yeah, uh, he should’ve listened to you.”  _ God, this is such a weird afternoon, _ Keith thinks.

Hunk rounds on him, completely getting up in Keith’s space, causing him to flush and lean back a bit. “ _ I know, right!” _ Hunk moves away. “I’m honestly surprised he hasn’t come searching— oh.” He’s looking out at the water, and, following his gaze, Keith sees two eyes peeking up from the lake before splashing back down.

“That’d be him,” Hunk says, rubbing his forehead. Keith perks up a bit.  _ One _ mermaid is one thing, but  _ two? _ In one day? Holy shit. He’d have bragging rights over everyone he knew, for like,  _ ever _ .

“Could we— uh, could I meet him?”

Hunk regards him curiously for a second, before a sly, playful smile grows on his face. “Oh? I’m sure I could convince him to say hi.” Hunk slips back into the water gracefully, and with a splash of his tail (flinging some water onto Keith’s face, he’s not sure that wasn’t intentional), he’s gone. Keith can just barely make out his shape heading closer to where the other mermaid,  _ Lance _ , had surfaced. Keith pulls his legs up onto the dock and sits cross-legged, watching the lake shift.

After a while of no visible movement in the water, Keith starts to doubt they’re coming back. A bit after that, he wonders if he hallucinated the whole thing. He sighs, and decides to try and get  _ some _ fishing in for the afternoon. Self-isolation induced hallucinations or not, he still needs to eat. Keith makes a mental note to get out of his house every once and awhile. About fifteen minutes pass, and he, surprisingly enough, has a bite. His mouth slowly curves up into a smile, and after a short game of tug-of-war, Keith can  _ see _ the fish, he’s almost got it—

“Augh!” Someone cries out in anguish, and before Keith could’ve done anything, his fish and hook are gone, gobbled up by a mermaid. But this time, it’s not Hunk.

“What the hell, man!” This one yells up at him, a little distorted by the hook digging into his lip. He’s tan, but not as dark as Hunk, sleek, and has a blue tail and flowing fins, reminding Keith of a betta fish. Little blue scales are peppered here and there across his face, neck, collarbones, and shoulders.

“You’re the one who ate  _ my _ fish!” Keith cries back, indignant. “Oh God, get up here. I’ll get that out of your mouth.”

“You better,” he grumbles, before hoisting himself up on the dock with an impressive display of shoulder muscles. Keith supposes saying he has a swimmer’s physique would be too literal. The mermaid is sitting where Hunk had earlier, and he opens his mouth before shutting it quickly, baring his teeth and making a loud  _ snap! _ noise.

“Don’t try anything funny,” he warns. “I could bite your fingers off. With  _ ease!” _

“Noted,” Keith says, not intimidated by the fish. He opens his mouth again, warily, and Keith starts removing the hook.

“You must be Lance,” Keith mumbles as he works. The mermaid makes an affirmative noise in the back of his throat.

“Hunk sent me over,” Lance says once the hook is out safely, poking at his lip and wincing. “He’s coming back, he just went to grab a snack first. I  _ thought _ it was a good idea,” he ends, glaring at Keith again.

“Listen, it’s not my fault you didn’t see the line. Didn’t you think the fish was acting weird before trying to eat it?”

Lance squawks. “Fish are weird! Fish do weird things all the time! How should I have known you’d snagged it?”

“For Christ’s sake,” Keith begins, but stops as Hunk pops out of the water at his feet (and Lance’s tail).

“Hello!” He greets cheerily. “I’m glad to see you two already talking.”

Lance’s fins ruffle and he looks away. “Yeah, sure,” Keith throws his hands in the air in defeat.

Hunk frowns at this. “Are you two not getting along?”

“I dunno, ask the guy who  _ hooked _ me!” Lance says, turning to glare at Keith again.

“I didn’t mean to!” Keith all but yells, indignantly. “ _ You _ ate the fish  _ I _ was reeling in!”

“Lance,  _ again?” _ Hunk says, disappointed. Lance looks like he's about to say something, but shuts his mouth when Hunk continues talking. “Babe, you’ve got to be more careful. You could get a hook lodged in your  _ throat _ one day. There’s not much we can do about that.”

Lance’s face softens, and he looks guilty. “Sorry, Hunk,” he murmurs. Keith takes a moment to notice little scars from puncture wounds smattered across Lance’s face, particularly on his lips and around his mouth.

“Now, let’s try again. Lance, this is Keith. Keith, Lance.” Hunk urges.

“Uh, hello.” Keith sticks out his hand awkwardly. Lance looks at his hand warily, then his face, then his hand again.

“Hi,” he says once he finally shakes it. As soon as they're done, the interrogation begins. “How long have you known Hunk?”

“What? I just met him this afternoon.”

“Right here, on this dock?”

“Wh— yes, this dock.”

Lance gives him a slight stink-eye. “Pretty crappy dock to introduce yourself on.”

Keith slams a hand on said dock. “ _ Enough _ about the dock already!”

Hunk raises his arms in a calming manner. “ _ Hey, _ guys, c’mon, calm down—” Lance sticks his tongue out, and the childish behavior eggs Keith on.

“Why are you being so rude? What did I do to you?”

“What, do you mean  _ besides _ the impromptu piercing?”

“I already told you I didn’t mean to!”

“Yeah, well—” Lance cuts off as a pained creak rang out from beneath them, and with a sharp cracking the front end of the deck gave out, dumping both man and mermaid into the lake. Lance let out a shrill cry as the deck crumbled. He surfaced and spat water out of his mouth, while Keith broke the water with a shiver. A stunned silence reigned for about three seconds before Hunk bursted out laughing.

“Y-y-your  _ faces _ ,” he choked out between laughs, “the dock just—” he makes a dumping motion with his hand— “and you both just…  _ splooshed!” _ His laughing picks up again, and Lance giggles a bit too, before joining in heartily. Keith’s own laughs slowly but surely join in as well, before all three were struggling to stay afloat with their laughter.

As the commotion died down, Keith found Lance watching him.

“What?” Keith asks, not unkindly.

Lance, blushing at being noticed, whispers something into Hunk’s ear before diving away.

“Is he still mad?”

“No.” Hunk smiles. “He said you’re cute when you’re not being grumpy. To be honest, I think you are too.”

“ _ O-oh _ ,” Keith wheezes.

After getting to land and talking with Hunk a bit more, Keith dried up and began packing up his fishing gear, unable to do much without a dock. Before he left though, Hunk made him promise to come back tomorrow.

Keith is a bad fisherman. Go figure the fish would be the ones to catch  _ him _ .

**Author's Note:**

> there’s no klunk fics anywhere so i have to feed myself… be a big boy and make my own dinner
> 
>  
> 
> (originally written August, 2017. this one's been in the vault for a while, folks) 


End file.
